Who the heck do I think I am?

As many of you know, I've been part of a giant HP website for almost 10 years: FictionAlley.

For years, we've had the luxury of a practically-free server host and we used to make a reasonable amount of money off Amazon partnerships and such - enough to essentially cover our costs. But recently that changed.

Our host was purchased by a larger company and our server hosting fees went from almost nothing to over $200 a month. We've done some fund-raising drives that just haven't worked well, and our staff members have contributed all they can (and in some cases more) to keep the site running for the time being. We've been aware for a few months, though, that the situation is really getting dire.

So we've been looking for opportunities to help achieve financial independence, including grants. Unfortunately, most of the grants out there don't fit our organization well, for a variety of reasons.

But we've kept trying. And this month we received confirmation that our proposal was included in the Pepsi Refresh challenge!

This is potentially the solution to our problems - but we can't win alone. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE help us! Go and VOTE for FictionAlley. You can vote three different ways (and each counts as a separate vote) AND you can vote for up to 10 causes per day, so FictionAlley and nine others. There are some awesome proposals out there, both in our category and in smaller and larger request amounts.*

PLEASE vote. Every Day, Every Way. Set a recurring reminder on your calendar to go vote, pass this on to your friends and anyone you think would be willing to give us three minutes a day through November 30 to try to be one of the top ten proposals in our category.

You can vote on the site, via Facebook, and by texting (normal texting rates apply):

Vote three times a day! Yes, you're allowed to - we checked with Pepsi.
Vote at http://www.refresheverything.com/fa
Vote via Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/refafb
Text 103643 to Pepsi (73774) (standard text messaging rates apply)
Remember, you don't have to be in the US to vote.


Vote for FA, Every Day, Every Way! Help us get refreshed!



*Believe it or not we've already heard some objections of the, "But think of the children!" variety: i.e., that we are somehow taking money that could be better used elsewhere by trying to win this grant. I've done the research and I'm here to tell you that there are far more sources of funding available to traditional charitable causes than there are to fan-oriented websites, even ones with a clear educational component like FA. Our 501(c)3 is just as deserving as any other - and we've never said we're trying to solve the problems of the world. Just this one problem. And again, you can vote for 10 charities per day, so if you see a proposal that touches your heart, by all means, vote for it! But please vote for us, too!


ETA: an earlier version of this post got wanked. I apologize for the incendiary comments that got everyone's attention. It was useless hyperbole and was inappropriate.